Herb Garden Ladder Planter

t all began on a sunny day while chatting with my neighbor. We were in her garage and I said to her ” why do you still have that old wooden ladder? It looks dangerous.” She replied, “I don’t know. It works.” I say to her why don’t you let me make an herb garden out of that old ladder so we can really get some use out of it, ie. grow mint for Mojitos and basil for pizza. She then looks at the ladder then turns to me and nods in agreement. “OK, you can take the ladder,” she says.

And thus began the final Cent-sational Salvage Challenge of the summer. I set forth to make the most awesome of awesomest (did you know that was a word?) of herb ladder gardens. I took the ladder and headed to my workshop (my garage).

Using scrap wood I secured the ladder in a 90 degree position and began to assembled the planter beds.

Now it's time to build the planter "drawers"/boxes. To fit the wood panels into the ladder to make the shelves of the planter boxes I cut out notches with the jigsaw to work around the legs. I didn’t want to dissemble the ladder in anyway so that I could maintain the structural support.

Using a table saw I cut off the decorative molding from the wood panel and used it as the front of the planter boxes. I then then constructed the sides and back of the box using old 2×3 scraps.

After making 3 planter boxes within the ladder I drilled holes in the boxes to aid in water drainage.

Once the ladder was complete it was time to secure it in the garden in its new home. I dug down about 6 to 8 inches to secure the ladder in place and to ensure it was on level ground.

Then it was time to paint it. I had a ton of sample paint I’d picked up from my local Habitat ReStore Center.

Fully paint the ladder. Once the paint dries sand the ladder with a coarse sanding paper to give the planter a vintage look.

Line each planter box with a liner. Coat the box with pebble rocks to aid in drainage. Fill with garden soil and plant your herbs or flowers.

Visit ToolBox Divas for more information on this project and others like it.